The First Real Entry. and it's a longgg one.

Well I have finally arrived and recieved internet access here in the beautiful city of Roma.

I've been here for a few days now and am loving it. La Dolce Vita for sure.

I guess to start with we can talk about the flight. Got to the airport way early, checked in my luggage and met up with brittany. after some teary goodbyes (for brittany. me and my family were just like PAYCE!) and a harrowing journey through the world of airport security, we made it to our gate with plenty of waiting time. I naturally stocked up on some trash magazines (britney got her body back! jen and john are over! brad walked out on angelina!) and brittany naturally stocked up on chips ahoy. Swiss Air messed up our tickets and didn't sit us near each other on the first flight but we were fine. I drank a bottle of white wine and then a bottle of champagne. aka I was drunk. but I was like "yusss now I will be able to pass out!"
well think again little drunk man. as much as i tried I was completely unable to get any sleep. the grumpy old man next to me however slept like a baby. a drooling baby.
it was really weird flying over time zones at night. The airplane served us dinner at like 10:00, then shut the lights off and everyone but me slept for like 4 hours, but then we were in europe and it was morning so they turned them on and served us breakfast. Apparently I preregistered as a vegetarian though so they had meals all ready for me. which was nice.

We had our stop over in zurich and then had a small flight into rome. At the airport however we encountered some trouble. Brittany, me and two other girls from stonehill going to jcu were all on the plane and were all supposed to be picked up by a service arranged through API and brought to our orientation hotel. The man (massimo) who was picking us up was an hour late however. we were standing around trying not to freak out and find whoever was supposed to be there. API should really have told us deets like where to meet and given us a phone number. So when Massimo finally strolls in holding a sign with our service on it we were very relieved. Massimo however spoke zero english and thought it would be a fun game to say "Okay Andiamo!" and RUN through traffic towards the bus. The four of us each with 100+ lbs of luggage each trying desperately to keep up and not get hit by craaazy italian drivers who were thirsty for american blood. I broke my neon yellow aviators and I am still bitter. fucking massimo.

anyway long story short we made it to the hotel, showered, had an orientation meeting, had a great dinner and then a big group of us walked down at night to the Colosseum and the tomb of the unkown soldier and wandered around the ancient end of rome. We ended up at Scholars an irish pub and had some celebratory drinks for making it to italy. Day 2 we had guided tours of the colosseum, the pantheon, the trevi fountain, and some other areas nearby. more orientation stuff and then a crazy night out. we went to dinner and I had an amazing salad and a 1/2 liter of wine. I love how cheap alcohol can be here. I got 1/2 a liter for 3 euro, and seeing how I had eaten nothing but corn flakes and salad all day got kind of toasted. haha. That however was only the beginning. I apparently seemed to forget that I was a 148lb tiny man and drank a long island iced tea, 2 shooters and a pitcher of carlsburg. needless to say i was shwasted. and have been paying for it allllll day long. I am only just now at 6pm starting to feel human again. It was a great night though and all the kids here are great, we all seem to be getting along really well so far.

Today I half woke half crawled out of bed just in time to shower and get my luggage downstairs for move-in day. All orientation long they wouldn't give us specific details of our apartments. THey just kept saying "Italians don't use as much space, you are going to have to get used to living in a very old building and possibly a small apartment, and said we very well might not have internet or television ect. We were all freaked about the internet. But then we get here and holy shit. We are living in a pent house apartment on the 6th floor. The most amazing and spacious apartment I could have imagined. My double would be a quad at least if it were stonehill. I have a huuuuge terrace with an amaaazing view off of my bedroom, and another one looking into the courtyard off of the kitchen. Fully furnished with modern furniture, pots pans, some food and drinks already here, right next to the tram, satelite tv being installed in september, fucking maid service twice a week. it's increddddddible. the terrace is my absolute favorite part. We went exploring and bought a little bit of groceries at the discount supermarket right next door. Decent bottle of wine for 1.85 aka my life is amazzzzzing.


I'm really loving it here, I'm having the best time. So far it's been a little nerve racking but now that I've moved in to my apartment, I am really starting to feel like it's real. I am so glad I chose to come here, and I feel so lucky that I have everything I need here. It feels great to be living in a city again. I forgot how convenient and exciting it was. And I think I'm finally mature enough to take full advantage of it, unlike when I lived in New York. So far I'm having the best time, and this is only the beginning of it. I can't wait to make travel plans and start going all over. We are so close to the airport and trains and trams. Me and Brittany have to book some tickets.